CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. Nov. 2, 2001 - Original paintings and sketches of Jake Wells, former chair of the Department of Art at Southeast Missouri State University and well known for his work depicting water mills, will be displayed in The Kelsen Gallery, 13 S. Spanish, in Cape Girardeau beginning Nov. 9.

The exhibit, brought together with original work from private collections, will open with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibit will remain on display through Nov. 29. The reception is free and open to the public. Hors d’oeuvres will be served.

Wells, associate professor emeritus of art and a 1942 alumnus of Southeast, is remembered for painting the mural in Kent Library on the Southeast campus and for encouraging all who had the pleasure of studying in his classes or working with him in any way. Wells is responsible for a number of pencil drawings and water colors depicting water mills in the Missouri Ozarks. Many of Wells’ images depict activities taking place near the mills which once served as the heart of Missouri community life. A few of his sketches illustrate the working mechanisms which powered the mills. Many of these images were published in 1990 in Water Mills of the Missouri Ozarks, authored by Dr. George Suggs, Southeast professor emeritus of history.

In addition to viewing Wells’ work, those attending the reception will have the opportunity to pick up information about the future Wells Teaching Gallery to be incorporated in Southeast’s School of Visual and Performing Arts, University officials said.

As plans are made for developing the School of Visual and Performing Arts, several alumni and friends have begun to make plans to remember Wells in the School in a prominent way. Former students and area artists have expressed similar hopes that the name and work of Wells be remembered. In keeping with this intent, the Southeast Missouri University Foundation has created an endowment for the future Wells Teaching Gallery and for a portrait of him that will be placed in the gallery.

“One of the things Jake always wanted was a teaching gallery located within the art department which would accommodate small exhibitions, classroom work and critiques,” said Jane Stacy, Southeast director of development.

Those attending the opening reception will have the opportunity to learn how they may contribute to make this memorial tribute possible, she said.

Those who attend the reception also may make a $100 donation to the Jake Wells endowment that will entitle them to a thank you gift - a Jake Wells’ print of the Old Appleton Mill. Participants also will have the opportunity to purchase for $2 the Missouri Mills booklet, an illustrated vignette of Missouri Mills watercolors by Wells. Author of the booklet is James Varner Parker, former director of the University Museum.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Nov. 2, 2001 - Seventh graders participating in the Bootheel Partnership GEAR-UP program through Southeast Missouri State University will take part in an educational adventure called the Southeast Challenge Nov. 12-15.

GEAR UP students from Caruthersville Middle School, North Pemiscot High School and Charleston Middle School will participate in the Southeast Challenge, which is aimed at promoting teamwork, leadership and personal growth through active learning. The Southeast Challenge, spearheaded by Recreational Sports at Southeast Missouri State University, leads participants to exciting discoveries about themselves and their roles as team members. It facilitates team building with active problem solving activities that call on participants to think, plan, take risks and support each other.

Southeast Missouri State University students serve as workshop guides. With assistance from the guides, the participants choose the type and degree of challenges they will face.

The Southeast Challenge will be held at Caruthersville Middle School Nov. 12, North Pemiscot High School Nov. 14 and Charleston Middle School Nov. 15. All three events are scheduled for 1 to 3 p.m.

GEAR UP -- Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs -- is a program designed to create a village that supports and encourages seventh grade students to complete their secondary education and enroll in and complete a postsecondary education.

Last year was the first year for the program. This year, a new group of seventh graders was added to the program while GEAR UP continues to serve the participants from last year who now are in the eighth grade.

GEAR UP is designed to increase the educational attainment of low-income students. The concept of this program is to expose students and teachers to innovative learning styles, inform parents that it is possible for their children to go to college and introduce both students and parents to seminars and college campuses. There are action teams created to assist in the implementation of this program at each school that include principals, teachers, parents and community leaders.

In fall 2000, Southeast Missouri State University along with Charleston, Caruthersville and North Pemiscot middle and high schools, the Suzanna Wesley Family Learning Center (Wesley Center), the Pemiscot County Initiative Network and Missouri Student Assistance Resource Services received a $1.2 million federal grant to help students in the southeast region of the state aspire to and prepare to pursue post-secondary education.

Students participating in GEAR UP have the opportunity to take part in an annual campus visit at Southeast Missouri State University and to attend a summer academy on the Southeast campus.

Bootheel Partnership GEAR UP students will participate in the upcoming Southeast Challenge.

WHEN/WHERE:

Nov. 12

Caruthersville Middle School

1-3 p.m.

Nov. 14

North Pemiscot High School

1-3 p.m.

Nov. 15

Charleston Middle School

1-3 p.m.

WHO:

Seventh grade students from Caruthersville Middle School, North Pemiscot High School and Charleston Middle school will participate in the Southeast Challenge.

Southeast Missouri State University students from Recreational Sports will serve as guides for the Southeast Challenge.

BACK-GROUND:

The Southeast Challenge is aimed at promoting teamwork, leadership and personal growth through active learning. GEAR UP - Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs - is a program designed to create a village that supports and encourages seventh grade students to complete their secondary education and enroll in and complete a postsecondary education.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Nov. 2, 2001 - The 2002 edition of WHO’S WHO AMONG STUDENTS IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES will include the names of 17 students from the Southeast Missouri State University Graduate School who have been selected as national outstanding campus leaders.

Campus nominating committees and editors of the annual directory have included the names of these students based on their academic achievement, service to community, leadership in extracurricular activities and potential for continued success.

They join an elite group of students from more than 2,300 institutions of higher learning in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and several foreign nations.

Outstanding students have been honored in the annual directory since it was first published in 1934.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Nov. 2, 2001 - The Southeast Missouri State University Student Alumni Association has announced the overall winners for spirit, participation and effort associated with ‘Celebrating Southeast” Homecoming 2001 held earlier this month.

Winners in the Red Division are as follows: Generations in Valor, first place; Baptist Student Union, second place; and Alpha Kappa Psi, third place.

Winners in the Black Division are as follows: the women of Alpha Delta Pi and the men of Pi Kappa Alpha, first place; the women of Sigma Sigma Sigma and the men of Sigma Nu, second place; and the women of Alpha Chi Omega and the men of Sigma Phi Epsilon, third place.

Organizations with large Homecoming parade floats compete in the Black Division. Groups building smaller parade floats compete in the Red Division.

Organizations are judged on their parade float in addition to their downtown window painting, Man and Woman of the Year nominations, participation in Service Day and for their spirit and participation in Homecoming activities in general.

Winners were recognized at half time of the Homecoming football game. Winners also will have their organization name engraved on a permanent plaque inside of the University Center on its Hall of Fame and receive a traveling trophy.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Nov. 2, 2001 - Paul Loeb, author of Soul of a Citizen and Generation at the Crossroads, will present a lecture on how ordinary citizens - and students in particular - can make their voices heard and actions count Nov. 14 at Southeast Missouri State University.

Loeb will speak during the Common Hour at noon in Crisp Hall Room 125. He will also participate in a book signing after the lecture.

Loeb, who speaks with passion and hope, will discuss how we learn to speak out on our deepest beliefs and how to get campuses more involved.

Challenging images of a generation universally perceived as apathetic and greedy, Loeb explores the struggle of current students to find their voice in a challenging world. He looks at how ordinary citizens, of all ages, learn to take committed stands. He describes how people get involved in larger community issues and what stops them from getting involved in larger community issues and what stops them from getting involved; how they burn out in exhaustion or maintain commitment for the long haul; and how involvement can give a rare sense of connection and purpose. He challenges all to help create a better world.

Loeb has spent 25 years researching and writing about citizen responsibility and empowerment - asking what makes some people choose lives of social commitment, while others abstain. In addition to Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time (St. Martin’s Press) and Generation at the Crossroads: Apathy and Action on the American Campus (Rutgers University Press), Loeb has written two other widely praised books, Nuclear Culture and Hope in Hard Times. An associated scholar at Seattle’s Center for Ethical Leadership, Loeb attended Stanford University and the New School for Social Research.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Nov. 2, 2001 - MBA students at Southeast Missouri State University have become the first student members of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce.

Mogens Madsen of Denmark, Michael Ketcherside of St. Charles County, Mo., and Lenell O’Connell of Kennett, Mo., are the first graduate students to join the Cape Chamber. The Cape Chamber of Commerce created the new membership category after interest was expressed for student membership last spring during an employment panel. At the start of the 2001-2002 school year, graduate students were able join the Cape Chamber of Commerce at a reduced membership fee.

“I think this new membership category is valuable to the graduate students,” said Jeff Glenn, director of membership development at the Cape Chamber of Commerce. “It will allow networking opportunities, as well as, create a new sense of diversity within our organization.”

Madsen and Ketcherside both joined the Chamber in September. Madsen, an international student from Denmark, has been at Southeast for more than three years and completed his Master of Business Administration at Southeast from 1999-2000. At the moment, he is interning with the Department of Management at Southeast to develop an SAP business case counting towards his Master of Science degree in Management Information Systems (MSC MIS) from The Aarhus School of Business (Denmark) and Harvard University. Madsen plans to stay active with the Chamber in the spring of 2002 while completing his MIS thesis and finally earning his MSC MIS by May 2002. In 1999, he completed a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) degree in international business from The Aarhus School of Business. Madsen is president of the MBA Association, co-founder of Student Teamwork - a student exchange organization, a member of the Chamber’s University Relations Committee and a member of Pi Kappa Alpha.

“As president of the MBA Association at Southeast, I want to take an active part in linking the University with the external community to offer mutual benefit programs for Southeast’s 85 active MBA students on the one side and the professional businesses in our community on the other side,” said Madsen. “It takes tremendous effort and time from both sides to foster a great working relationship. These working relationships can easily fail due to lack of communication up front. It is critical that the professional businesses, early in the process, get a feeling for the skills and concepts that a graduate MBA student brings to the job market.”

Ketcherside, currently an MBA student, completed his undergraduate BSBA degree in accounting from Southeast in December 2000. Ketcherside is currently studying to take the Certified Public Accountants (CPA) Exam in November 2001 and plans to complete his MBA in May 2002. He is currently employed at Southeast as a computer lab assistant. Ketcherside is the president of the Management Club, a volunteer for the Gibson Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Center and an active member of Lynwood Baptist Church.

O’Connell joined the Cape Chamber of Commerce in early October. O’Connell is entering her third year at Southeast. She completed her BSBA degree in marketing from Southeast in August 2001.

This is her first semester in the MBA program at Southeast and plans to graduate in May 2003. O’Connell is a graduate assistant in the News Bureau at Southeast, president of Omicron Delta Kappa and secretary of the MBA Association. She is also a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Beta Gamma Sigma and Centenary United Methodist Church.

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce was established in 1917. Its mission is to serve the Cape Girardeau area and its businesses as the principal advocate in fostering economic progress, vitalizing jobs and improving the quality of life. Membership benefits include networking events, economic development, business advocacy, advertising and publicity, seminars and a better Cape Girardeau.

To become a student member of the Cape Chamber of Commerce, you must be a full-time graduate student with graduate school as your primary occupation. For more information, contact Jeff Glenn at (573) 335-3312.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Nov. 2, 2001 - Business entrepreneurship will be the topic of the Nov. 4 “Public Forum” program that will air at 5:30 a.m. on WDKA-49.

Guest will be Jim Scherer, business entrepreneur from Nashville, Tenn.

“Public Forum” is a program designed to deal with issues affecting the local region. Dr. Tom Harte, Southeast Missouri State University professor emeritus of speech communications and theatre; Dr. Peter Bergerson, chair of the Southeast Department of Political Science; and Dr. J. Christopher Schnell, Southeast professor of history, will host the program.

In addition, the show will also air on Tuesday, Nov. 6 and Thursday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. on Channel 5.

The program is produced by the Southeast Missouri State University Student Chapter of the Media Communications Association.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Nov. 2, 2001 - The Boeing Co. recently made a gift of $3,500 to the Southeast Missouri State University Foundation to support scholarships for students majoring in management information systems (MIS) at Southeast Missouri State University.

The gift will pave the way for $500 and $1000 scholarships to be presented to eligible MIS students next spring and next fall. There will be two categories for the scholarships created from these funds. The first will go to minority students who are majoring in MIS, have a minimum grade point average of 3.0, an ACT score of 21 and present a one-page statement of career objectives. The second will go to any student in MIS who is admitted to the Harrison College of Business, maintains a minimum grade point average of 3.0, participates in the Management Club and presents a one-page statement of career objectives.

The Boeing Company is the largest aerospace company in the world and the United States’ leading exporter. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft, and the largest NASA contractor. The company’s capabilities in aerospace also include rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, missiles, rocket engines, satellites, launch vehicles, and advances information and communication systems. The company has an extensive global reach with customers in 145 countries.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Nov. 5, 2001 - During the week of Nov. 12-16, Southeast Missouri State University will celebrate the second annual International Education Week with a variety of activities and educational opportunities.

During International Education Week, the U.S. Department of Education recognizes the importance of educating students about people and nations throughout the world in preparing our students to live in a diverse and tolerant society and succeed in a global economy, said U.S Secretary of Education Rod Paige.

“Knowledge about the culture and language of our neighbors throughout the world is becoming increasingly important in the daily lives of all Americans,” he said. “The events of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 underscore that point. For our students, international education means learning about the history, geography, literature and arts of other countries, acquiring proficiency in a second language and understanding complex global issues. It means having opportunities to experience other cultures, whether through studying abroad, exposure to diversity in their own communities or through classroom-to-classroom Internet connections with students in schools in other nations.”

The celebration of International Education Week at Southeast will open with a reception at the International Center on the Southeast campus on Monday, Nov. 12, from 3-5 p.m. During the reception, awards will be presented to both international and U.S. students who participated in a recent “Say Cheese” photo contest. Students submitted photos in two categories: “Home, Sweet Home” (photos taken at students’ homes) and “Wish You Were Here” (photos taken away from students’ homes).

Throughout the week, flags representing each of the home countries of international students at Southeast will be flown from the International Center at 939 College Hill on the University campus.

An International Fashion Show will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 14 during Common Hour. International students at the University will model the native dress of their countries in an event that will showcase the variety of cultures that are represented at Southeast. Seventeen international students will model native dress from New Guinea, India, Malaysia, Colombia, China, Japan, Ukraine, Nigeria and Yemen. The fashion show will begin at noon in the multipurpose room of the Student Recreation Center on the Southeast campus.

On Thursday Nov. 15, a Study Abroad Fair will be held in the University Center lobby. From 11 a.m.-2 p.m., students and others will be on hand to answer questions about study abroad programs that are available to Southeast students. Peace Corps literature information also will be available.

For those who wish to show their support for international education, commemorative T-shirts will be for sale at the International Center. The shirts cost $6 each for sizes S-XL and $8 each for size XXL. The shirts are heavy gray T-shirts with the logo of the International Center on the front and a message of international friendship on the back. Quantities are limited.

For more information, contact Jill Venezian, coordinator of International Community Programs, at (573) 986-6872.

SOUTHEAST SME CHAPTER WINS TOP NATIONAL AWARD FOR SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Nov. 2, 2001 - The student chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) at Southeast Missouri State University recently was named one of the nation’s top student chapters for the second consecutive year, placing it among the top five percent of SME student chapters worldwide.

Southeast’s SME Student Chapter now has won one international award, two national awards and four regional first place awards in the past two years.

Members of the Southeast SME Student Chapter were awarded the prestigious SME Outstanding Student Chapter Award for Overall Excellence at the recent SME Region 10 Conference in Overland Park, Kan. The award carries with it a $500 cash award, which the chapter plans to use towards the cost of attending FabTech Nov. 11 in Chicago. FabTech is the world’s largest trade show for industry.

The chapter was evaluated for the award based on the number of members in the student organization, attendance at meetings, a scrapbook containing a journal of the chapter’s activities throughout the year, and technical seminars and industrial tours sponsored throughout the year by the chapter. Chapter members also assembled a tabletop display at the conference, participated in mock job interviews in the manufacturing sector on which they were evaluated, and delivered a PowerPoint presentation on which they were judged for their style and delivery.

Dr. Gary Frey, advisor to the Southeast SME Student Chapter and design and rapid prototyping coordinator at Southeast, said winning the award is a significant achievement. He credited the chapter’s success to outstanding student leadership, faculty involvement and membership participation.

“This award is not easy to get, so it means a lot to us,” he said. “What it really says is that we have had three consecutive years of very good chapter leaders and members. When that happens, good things happen.”

About 40 students are members of the Southeast SME Student Chapter. Frey said each of the student officers devoted about 100 hours to winning the award.

Todd Marchi of Jackson, Mo., is president of the Southeast Student SME Chapter. Dr. Craig Downing, assistant professor of industrial technology, serves as co-advisor to the organization. Dr. Greg Boyd, assistant professor of industrial and engineering technology, serves as liaison to the chapter.

SME, headquartered in Dearborn, Mich., is an international professional society dedicated to serving its members and the manufacturing community through the advancement of professionalism, knowledge and learning. Founded in 1932, SME has nearly 65,000 members in 70 countries. There are nearly 300 student chapters in the United States.

THE SCIENCE AND MORALITY OF MODERN WARFARE TOPIC OF NOV. 7 SYMPOSIUM ON TERRORISM

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Nov. 9, 2001 - A fourth in a series of symposiums on “Terrorism in the 21st Century,” in which the science and morality of modern warfare will be discussed, is planned for Nov. 7 at Southeast Missouri State University.

The event, which is open to the public, is scheduled for noon in Johnson Hall Room 200.

The symposium will consist of two presentations. “Just War, Just Weapons” will be presented by Dr. Andy Pratt, of the Southeast Department of Philosophy and Religion. Dr. Chris Frazier, professor of biology, will present “Biological Weapons: Poor Man’s Weapons of Mass Destruction.”

Dr. Mitchel Gerber, professor of political science, will moderate the symposium. The Department of Political Science is sponsoring the event.